3 Aralık 2018 Pazartesi

Causes of Nerve Pain

Nerve pain and phantom pain unfortunately can not be controlled with regular painkillers from the drugstore. A visit to the GP is always necessary in order to trace the cause as quickly as possible, so that much suffering can be prevented. Nerve Renew Neuropathy Pain Treatment What are the causes and symptoms of nerve pain?

Nerve pain or neuropathic pain

The nervous system is structured as follows: the brain, the spinal cord, the central nervous system, the nerves, the peripheral nervous system. If any damage has occurred, it can result in nerve pain (neuropathic pain).

In about 90% of all cases, damage to the peripheral nervous system is the cause of the pain. Shingles is for example such a reason. Nerve pain resulting from damage to the central nervous system can be caused by bleeding from the spinal cord or from a cerebral infarction.

Nerve Renew Pain function

The function of pain is obvious; it makes us not burn a hot stove etc. Or that you do not keep running with severe muscle pain.

In the case of nerve pain, however, the pain signal is given completely randomly and sometimes even continuously. While nothing at all is going on, you just get the "hot" signal. A caress can hurt. You feel needles, but there is no needle to be seen. These are examples where there is damage to the sensory nerves. The way in which we experience stimuli is determined by the sensory nerves: is something warm, cold, pleasant or painful to feel?

Causes of nerve pain
A damaged sensory nerve can lead to chronic or acute pain in various degrees. There are several forms of nerve pain. The symptoms and symptoms vary per person. The main causes are:

Accident or surgery
Scar pain after surgery, or phantom pain after an amputation. In the latter case, the part of the brain that, for example, controlled the amputated arm or foot is still active, so even though the body part is gone. This can cause chronic or acute pain. People with paraplegia often also suffer from nerve pain.

Press, or damage to a nerve
If a nerve comes under pressure, a 'shooting' pain can form. For example, a tumor or a hernia. Such a nerve pain is called neuralgia. Sciatica is also a well-known example of this. There is then an irritated sciatic nerve, for example as a result of heavy lifting.

Infection
The nervous system can be affected by various infections, for example shingles, HIV, Lyme disease. Shingles, for example, cause nerve pain in 10 to 15% of cases, particularly in patients over 50 years of age.

Harmful substances
Also substances that you ingest can damage the nervous system. Chemotherapy is the best-known example of this. As a result, many cancer patients get nerve pain. This can of course also be the result of an operation or the shape of the cancer. But there is also a group of patients, where the chemotherapy is the cause of the pain.

Too much alcohol

Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to a long and severe nutrient deficiency and thus result in damage to the nervous system.

Diabetes (diabetes)

Approximately a quarter of the diabetic patients have nerve pain. The high blood sugar levels (hypoglycaemia) damage the nerves, especially in the hands and feet. In addition to pain, however, numbness is also a risk for diabetes. Wounds can be overlooked and therefore start to ignite.

Damage to the central nervous system

A bleeding in the spinal cord, Multiple Sclerosis or a cerebral infarction can cause nerve pain.

Visit the doctor
Unfortunately, it is not always easy to reduce nerve pain to one of the causes mentioned. In order to be able to make the best possible diagnosis, a doctor asks for the type of pain, also for the medical history of the person who has nerve pain.

Obviously, it is important to consult the GP in case of pain. Self-care medications usually have no result in case of nerve pain. A timely professional treatment can, however, prevent a lot of trouble.